IPCC starts meeting to finalize Working Group III report

IPCC starts meeting to finalize Working Group III report

7 April 2014 – Government representatives and scientists opened a five-day meeting on Monday of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to finalize a report assessing the options for mitigating climate change, and the underlying technical, economic and institutional requirements.

The meeting is the culmination of four years’ work by hundreds of experts who have volunteered their time and expertise to produce a comprehensive assessment. The IPCC member governments are gathering to approve the Summary for Policymakers of the third part of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), checking the text line by line.

The Working Group III contribution to the AR5 deals with the mitigation of climate change. It sets out the technological, economic and institutional requirements and associated risks of climate change policies at the global, national and sub-national level, investigates mitigation measures for all major sectors, and assesses investment and finance issues.

“Preventing dangerous interference with the climate system entails mitigating climate change,” said Ottmar Edenhofer, Co-Chair of Working Group III. “On a transparent scientific basis, our report provides an understanding of the available options to meet this challenge.”

The first contribution, by Working Group I, dealing with the physical science basis of climate change, was finalized in September 2013, with the full report published at the end of January 2014. The Working Group II contribution, assessing impacts, adaptation and vulnerability, was finalized in March this year. The Fifth Assessment Report will be completed by a Synthesis Report in October.

The meeting, hosted by the Government of Germany, runs from 7 to 11 April 2014. The Summary for Policymakers is due to be released on Sunday 13 April. The full report will also be released within two days, published online in September, and in book form a few months later.

“The approval process puts our report under close scrutiny. It ensures that our report presents state of the art research in a language and format that policymakers can use,” said Ramón Pichs-Madruga, one of the other Co-Chairs of Working Group III.

“In the Plenary, all countries can voice their concerns and all of them are heard. In the end, it is scientific accuracy that decides”, added Youba Sokona, Co-Chair of Working Group III.

The report builds on previous IPCC reports and assesses the wealth of literature on climate change mitigation that has emerged since the publication of the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report in 2007.